JAMES SMITH HEATING & COOLING

unknown

I have used this company several times to do PM's on my units and on 3 occasions when the units (12 years old) when the units would not work.   Each time they came they came promptly and corrected the problem.   Except the last time when the unit began to leak the refrigerant and I was advised the unit probably should be replaced.   I had another company come in to double check the recommendation (and he confirmed).   I had 4 companies give me quotes on replacements and investigated the suggested units on the internet.  One company came in a little less than James Smith.   However, I have been pleased with his reasonable pricing on repairs and so I called him(wanting to be loyal to a good vendor) and asked if he would meet the low vendors price.   He agreed.   He was the only vendor to inspect my entire duct system to assure no leaks and to see if a short run could be added for a room that the prior unit would not make comfortable on extreme hot/cold days.   He offered to do a short run at a nominal cost.    On install day when actual run was to be installed we discovered that the only way the run could be completed would be to destroy a joist on a bearing wall.   Rather than do it, James Smith decided, with my concurrence, it could cause structural issues down the road and we decided not to go forward at no cost to me even though he had several hours invested.

I chose a 13 seer unit for a number of personal reasons, he made no effort to boost me into a higher seer unit or to increase the tonnage after inspecting the duct compacity.   However on install day he advised me that the 13 seer unit I wanted was not available.   He could have suggested that I wait a week to 10 days, but instead he brought a 14 seer unit and he and the distributor split the additional cost.   Considering the weather in KY in August this was a considerable convenience to us and he made no effort to pass to the cost on to us.  The 14 seer unit comes with tax credits and the 13 did not - the potential credit was passed ont to us for the cost of the 13 seer unit